The upcoming upgrade for Ethereum is a much-anticipated event. It will result in the creation of new participants, better known as builders, within the ecosystem of the blockchain. This is a move that can potentially alter the structure of power, in the cryptocurrency network that is considered the most commercially important.
Once the upgrade for Ethereum, better known as the Merge, takes place in September, the transactions will be gathered by the builders. These will be gathered into blocks, which will be sent to the validators. These validators need to sign off on the block order which will go on to form the blockchain that is upgraded.
Ethereum, the Merge, and Builders
Already, there are over 416,000 validators that have lined up so they can order the transactions. However, a less number of participants have committed to serving as builders. The role split between builders and validators was originally seen as a way to increase the decentralization of Ethereum.
It was also meant as a way to take some of the power away from validators.
If there aren’t enough builders, then the Ethereum chain that’s being upgraded could face some issues. Transactions could be censured from inclusion in blocks. If there are just a few builders, they could ask for higher fees as well. This means that validators will be earning less. Blockdaemon’s Jonas Pfannschmidt commented on this issue by saying that his company would closely monitor the situation. His company is known for running validator nodes. He said that in the event the world becomes more centralized when it comes to builders, his company would take action.
